Faced with several bags full of the most luscious sloes (big, juicy and almost SWEET!), I decided to have a go at Sloe & Apple Cheese this weekend, not having the patience for jelly-making.

Chucked 3 kilos of sloes and half a pint of water (apols for the metric and imperial mix here!) in the Rayburn for a couple of hours at least, to soften and chucked the peeled, cored and chopped cooking apples in the microwave to cook. (Old technology meets new, eh?). Figured I might as well peel and core the apples as it would be less to squash thru the sieve later on…

Anyhow, when both were soft, I then set about them with my Bamix before sieving them and carrying on in the usual “1 pound of sugar to 1 of pulp” way. Total volume weighed 2325 grammes, with the apples being 900 grammes of that. Added 2325 grammes of the sugar and set about waiting the “1 hour until thick” that my recipe advocated.

Needn’t have worried tho’ – it set like a dream in just over 30 minutes and is dark, sweet and VERY moreish.

I am sure I read somewhere that sloes are a bugger to get to set, so whether it was the apples or bamixing that made this do it’s thing so spectacularly, I dunno.

If like me the word “cheese” has put you off – have a go at this. The result is absolutely worth the effort of making it. Result? 10.5 jars of yummy, scrummy, sloe-y delight.

The only reason I bamixed it rather than sticking it all in the kitchen processor was because I could hover the bamix ABOVE the stones in the pan and still effectively mash everything up. I thought the processor would complain about having to try and pulverise sloe stones - and the noise would have been fearsome, too, I think.

It's just my mean-gene kicking in - after all the effort of picking and processing and all that, I was damned if I was gonna let half my stash go into the bin with the skin and stones....

I know what you mean. I made sloe jelly this year and resented binning all of the flesh. But as I was making a jelly, I wanted to keep it as clear as possible, so I didn't press it through a sieve. Just left it to drip through a jelly bag overnight.

My sister baulked when I said I was making something sweet out of sloes. She's now a convert!

A couple of years ago, after making several litres of Sloe Gin, I wondered what to do with the remaining 'flesh' of the sloes.
I removed all the stones - that was the worst part - and the resulting gin soaked 'flesh' I put through a wine making 'press' and squeezed out all the remaining liquid (who's going to waste sloe gin even if it has extra body).
OK, now there's a mass of sloe flesh infused with gin. Wonderful when used as a dressing on Cheese and crackers!